What do the parties in Thuringia say on work and social affairs?

The AfD wants to address the shortage of skilled workers and labor mainly with people already living in the country. Immigration would be considered only for specific needs and only for highly qualified people who speak German. Master craftsman training would become free.

The AfD wants to find missing workers at home first. Only a few well-trained people should come from abroad. They should speak German. Training to become a master craftsperson should be free. Young skilled workers should stay in Thuringia.

The AfD rejects Bürgergeld (citizen's income) because it believes it encourages people not to work. It would be replaced by a basic income support that clearly favors paid work. People who work should have noticeably more than those who do not.

The AfD is against Bürgergeld. It wants a different basic support. Basic support is money from the state to live on. People who work should have clearly more money. Work should always pay off.

The BSW wants no worker in Thuringia to earn less than 14 euros an hour. The party also wants to protect industry and cut red tape for small and mid-sized businesses. Families, employees, smaller firms and retirees should be at the center of state policy.

The BSW wants higher wages. Nobody in Thuringia should earn less than 14 euros an hour. Small and mid-sized firms should have less paperwork. Industry should be protected.

The BSW wants better pay and more political recognition for people in social-sector jobs, including through state and municipal funding. This is meant to secure staff for public services and narrow the gender pay gap.

Many people work in social jobs. They often earn little. The BSW wants to pay them more. Most of these workers are women. So women and men should earn more equally.

The BSW wants more Thuringian employers to pay according to collective agreements and wants better wages and working conditions. In the program's view, Thuringia should stop being a low-wage state and an "extended workbench" for West German corporations.

People in Thuringia earn less than elsewhere. Often there is no union contract. Such a contract sets fair pay and vacation. The BSW wants more of these contracts. Pay and jobs should get better.

The CDU wants to abolish Bürgergeld (citizen's income) in its current form and replace it with a new basic income support that focuses more on placing people in jobs. According to the platform, people who work should have more than people who do not. The party also backs making overtime pay tax-free.

The CDU wants to end Bürgergeld in its current form. Bürgergeld is money the state pays to people without work. A new basic support should replace it. It should get people into jobs faster. People who work should have more money than people who do not. Overtime pay should be tax-free.

The CDU wants continuing education to be geared more closely to the needs of employees and companies. In the party's view, Thuringia's educational leave law does not meet that standard. At the same time, funding for continuing education is to become less bureaucratic.

The CDU wants to change the rules for continuing education. It should fit what companies and workers need. The CDU does not like today's law on paid leave for education. Funding should become simpler. Parents should get help with child care.

The CDU wants people with disabilities to be free to choose between supported work in the regular labor market and work in a sheltered workshop. It also wants to remove digital barriers and promote German Sign Language in schools.

People with disabilities should decide for themselves where they work. They can work in a regular company or in a sheltered workshop. The CDU wants to keep these workshops. Government websites should be easier to use. Schools should offer sign language classes.

The CDU wants older people to be able to live at home as long as possible, stay mobile, and take part in community life. Its plans include a senior transit ticket, a funding program for barrier-free home conversions, and measures against loneliness.

Older people should be able to stay in their homes for a long time. The CDU wants to give money for making homes barrier-free. There should be a senior ticket for buses and trains. The CDU also wants to do something about loneliness. Once a year there should be a Grandparents' Day.

The Left wants to address the labor shortage with better pay, more attractive vocational training, good infrastructure and affordable living conditions. No one should have to move away, and young people should come to Thuringia. The party also relies on strong unions.

Thuringia lacks many workers. The Left wants better pay and better job training. Life in the state should be affordable. This way people stay and young people move here. Strong unions should help with this.

The Left wants to press the federal government and the Bundesrat on measures the state cannot adopt alone. These include a price cap on energy and food, a Kindergrundsicherung (basic child allowance), tax policy that eases burdens, and pensions without disadvantages for eastern Germans.

Some things only the federal government can decide. The Left wants to push for them there. It wants a price limit for energy and food. It wants a basic allowance for children against poverty. Pensions in the east should not be worse.

The Left wants working-time models that make it easier to combine a job with childcare and caring for relatives, and that share care work more fairly between women and men. It names the four-day week and other forms of shorter hours as options.

The Left wants new models for working hours. People should be able to combine work, children and care more easily. Women and men should share these tasks more fairly. The party also thinks about a four-day week.

The Left wants Thuringia's public procurement law, with its minimum pay rate, to apply to municipal contracts as well. State subsidies are to be tied to collectively agreed wages and good working conditions.

The state gives contracts to companies. A special minimum wage applies to them. The Left wants this rule for towns and cities too. Only companies with fair pay should get state money.

The Left wants to expand workers' co-determination in companies and promote economic democracy. A specialized public prosecutor's office is to act against the obstruction of works councils, and a chamber of labor is to represent employees' interests.

Workers should have more say in their companies. Some companies block works councils. A special prosecutor's office should act against that. The Left also wants a chamber of labor. That is a public body that speaks for workers.

The Left wants the minimum wage to apply in workshops for people with disabilities as well. It also wants workshop employees to be supported in moving to the regular labor market.

People with disabilities often work in special workshops. The minimum wage does not apply there today. The Left wants to change that. It also wants to help them move into regular companies.

The Left wants more staff for the state's occupational safety authority so that violations and exploitative employment can be punished. An anti-stress regulation is to oblige employers to take protective measures.

The Left wants more staff for workplace safety. The office should be able to punish violations better. There should also be a new rule against stress. Employers must then protect the health of their workers.

The Left wants to give people who have been out of work for years a lasting prospect through publicly funded employment. The state's labor market programs are to be adequately financed for this.

Some people have been looking for work for years. The Left wants to help them. The state should fund jobs for them. The state's programs should get enough money.

The Left wants to push in the Bundesrat for a 15-euro minimum wage, a minimum training allowance, and basic income support without sanctions. It rejects a longer working life and any weakening of employee rights.

The Left wants to fight for better rules in the Bundesrat. The minimum wage should rise to 15 euros. Bürgergeld should rise with prices every year. Later there should be basic support without penalties. People should not have to work more years.

The Left wants to create a fund that all businesses pay into and from which businesses that train apprentices get money back. This is meant to create incentives for more apprenticeship places and make non-training businesses share the costs.

The Left wants a fund for job training. A fund is a shared pot of money. All businesses pay in a little. Businesses with apprentices get money back. This should create more training places.

The Left wants better social protection for apprentices so they do not depend on parents or side jobs. At the federal level it calls for higher minimum pay and more BAföG (student aid), and it plans its own support in the state.

The Left wants more money for apprentices. Training pay should protect against poverty. School fees and exam fees should go away. There should be cheap housing for apprentices. There should again be money for travel costs.

The Left wants to make sure no one has their electricity or heating cut off anymore. Access to energy should not depend on income.

People who do not pay the bill sometimes lose their power. The Left wants to end this. No one should be allowed to turn off the heating either. Everyone should get energy, even with little money.

The Left wants to press at the federal level for a Bürgergeld (citizen's income) with higher rates and no sanctions, and for an effective basic child benefit. It also calls for price caps on food, energy and rents. The program argues that no one should be poor in a rich country and that wealth must be redistributed to achieve this.

The Left wants more money for people on Bürgergeld. That is the basic welfare payment. The job center should no longer be allowed to cut it. Children should get their own basic benefit. Food, energy and rents should get a price limit.

The Left wants to continue the state program "Solidarisches Zusammenleben der Generationen" (solidarity between generations) and fund it with at least 20 million euros a year. The money is meant to let municipalities secure their social infrastructure and give counseling services and family centers reliable funding.

Thuringia has a program for young and old people living together. The Left wants to grow this program. It should get at least 20 million euros every year. Towns and villages use the money for advice services and meeting places.

The Left wants to make it easier for people with disabilities to enter the job market and to expand their say in politics and society. This includes a higher compensatory levy, a more attractive Budget für Arbeit (budget for work), and removing barriers in all areas of life.

People with disabilities often have a hard time finding work. The Left wants to change that. Companies without disabled workers should pay more. Barriers should be removed everywhere. People with very poor eyesight should also get money from the state.

The Left wants to attract more skilled workers from abroad and to recognize their professional qualifications faster and with less red tape. Workers who immigrate are to receive support from day one so that they stay in Thuringia long term.

The Left wants more skilled workers from other countries. Their job qualifications should be accepted faster. These workers should get help from the start. That way they should stay in Thuringia for a long time.

The SPD wants to create a state program for community work worth 10 million euros and secure it by law. It would let municipalities fund things like neighborhood help, flexible childcare and leisure activities, and decide for themselves what helps local families.

The SPD wants a new program for towns and villages. It should be worth 10 million euros. Towns can use it to pay for neighborhood help and leisure activities. Each place decides what its families need.

The SPD wants to secure and better fund voluntary service programs such as the voluntary social, ecological, cultural and political year. All young people should be able to afford such a year, even without support from their parents.

Young people can do a voluntary year. For example in social work or protecting nature. The SPD wants everyone to be able to afford this. So volunteers should get more pocket money. It should be as high as the student aid called Bafög.

The SPD wants to strengthen social and educational work with older people in municipalities and permanently secure programs such as AGATHE against loneliness. Planning of services for the elderly is to become mandatory for municipalities through a new law on elder care structures.

The SPD wants more services for older people in towns. A program against loneliness should stay for good. Towns should have to plan help for older people. There should be a new law for this. Older people should be able to live at home for a long time.

The SPD wants to involve older people more closely in consultations and decisions that affect them and to expand the rights of the bodies that represent them. It also wants public transit to be geared to older people's needs and to improve protection against crime targeting seniors.

The SPD wants older people to have more of a say. Senior councils should get more rights. Buses and trains should work better for old people. The police should protect old people better from fraud and crime.

The SPD wants to bring more people with disabilities into training and regular jobs with social insurance coverage. To do so, support services are to be expanded and a financial incentive for companies is to be examined.

People with disabilities should find a regular job more easily. The SPD wants more training places and more help at work. It is also looking at money benefits for companies that hire people with disabilities. The government itself should set an example.

The SPD wants to reform Thuringia's public procurement law so that public contracts go only to companies covered by collective wage agreements. This is to apply to municipal contracts as well. The party sees this as a contribution to aligning wages between eastern and western Germany.

The government gives contracts to companies. The SPD wants only companies with a collective wage agreement to get them. Such an agreement sets pay for many workers. The rule should also apply to cities and towns. This should help raise wages in the east.

The SPD rejects longer store opening hours and more work on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays. It justifies this with the protection of employees. Violations are to be met with penalties.

The SPD does not want longer opening hours for stores. It also does not want more work on weekends and holidays. This is meant to protect workers. Those who break the rules should be punished. The workplace safety agency should get more staff.

The SPD supports a chamber of labor as a counterpart to the business chambers IHK and HWK, provided the unions broadly agree. The chamber is to advise employees and represent their interests toward politics and administration. It is to be joined by an institute for worker-oriented research and a technology advice center.

The SPD wants a chamber for workers. A chamber speaks for the interests of a group. Businesses already have such chambers. The new chamber should advise workers. The unions should agree to it. A new institute should study working conditions.

The SPD wants a skilled-worker drive to make social professions more attractive, including social work, health and nursing care, and childcare. Training is to be free of tuition fees, and nonprofit providers are to receive uniform, sufficient funding statewide. The platform calls these professions hard location factors because without them other people cannot go to work.

Social jobs include nursing and childcare. The SPD wants to win more people for these jobs. Training should not cost school fees. Internships should be paid. Social service providers should get enough money to pay union-level wages.

The SPD wants to guarantee every young person an apprenticeship by law and fund this through a levy. It points out that young people are left without a place even though many positions stay vacant and fewer companies train apprentices.

Every young person should get an apprenticeship. The SPD wants to guarantee this by law. It is paid for with a levy. That means companies pay together into one pot. Training conditions should also get better.

Together with the unions, the SPD is pushing for collective agreement coverage across the whole care sector. It also backs a four-day week for care workers, phased in gradually and later leading to 30 hours a week at full pay.

The SPD wants better working conditions in care. Union wage agreements should apply everywhere. Overtime should be paid better. Care workers should step by step work only four days a week. Their pay should stay the same.